Press and daily Dakotaian. (Yankton, Dakota Territory [S.D.]) 1880-1889, 1887-10-28
Daslg greas and 9akutaias
UNCLE SANS sInoNa Box.

- -L. "aL.
would be a 4kfiifui Burglar, Indeed,
who Could Enter lie.
Washington letter 10 Savannah News:
1 dropped into the treasury yesterday
.nd looked at the workmen who are eL-
gagged IN constructing the new vault.
me treasury itself looks Ike a tomb. IL
uas great som0fe columns down each
lde OF it and the doors OF ats basement
are so cut that they look AZ though they
we're dug ont of . solid rock. Every
shIpR about is MASSIVE, and 1t makes me
.hlnk more OF the bank of England than
any other building | have seen. 1t is
made in the shape OF a hollow square,
with wide tiers of granite walls running
around o court In the centrei 1t is in
this court that the new vault is being
built. Thick walls of brick and cement
rise within and the vault will be abose
and not below ground. It's interior will
be cut up into cells walled with iron lat
tice work, and the woIkmen are now
.riviting the iron bars compos-
|lng 1t together. These bars must
be very strong, as the weight
of the silver which is to be put in the
vault will be immense. There was q
portable furnace blazing away within
the vault to-day, aud four men carrying
red-hot riyets and sticking through the
holes which had been drilled 1 n these
iron bars. They we're then riveted by
the pounding Of q heavy hammer while
q man held an iron mallet against them
at the back. Each of these lattice.work
walls reqnirs 2 500 ~rivets, and it vii
toxic more than 100 0C0 of these rivess tt
faEten the iron work of the vault to-
gether. The vault is to contain 500, 900,
600, which is such an immense sum that
few people can comprehend it. 1t vii
give some idea OF it to know that It'll
weight will be $3.50 tons or the weigh
of Be, 800 men OF 900 pounds each, Thlnh
OF the heaviest man you know, and i
would take $4,000 such men to weigh al
much as does this silver. 1t would take
II freight cars to carry it. and it would
take q train q mile and a quarter Ion,
to transport it. Its weight woult
be so much that six locomotives couli
hardly haul it, and II these dollars wer
laid out 30 that n inst touched tn
other they would make a line 2 305 mile
long. II they we're put into o floor, edg
to edge they would carpet ten times til
area OF the capitol or more than 80 acres
AuN IA suCy Woto pAiou OUo upUu AuuGuo
they would reach much more than ! ,50l
times aa high as the Washington monu
ment, making a solid oolum Of silee
more than III miles high A million
dollars In silver is no small quantity. an
when You pack 300 ,000,000 into q vaul
il has 20 be as strong ss stone and iro
can make it. To rob this vault will be
: physical impossibility. To tunnel III
to ii one would have to go under th
whole treasury building, and he woul
have to drill through q floor OF cemen
: and chilled steel before he got to the col
The slightest noise would be sure to b
heard. aud the movement of a single be
would aus such Q racket as to brIn
the guard down upon him instantel
No attempt has, l think, ever bee
made TO rob the United States treasury
and the safeguards about il are SO stron
that none but the craziest OF nae
would think OF trying it.